By Chris Coleman*

Imperialist states bent on pursuing a policy of wars of aggression in order to achieve world domination must first prepare the ground in the realm of ideas, in the field of culture. To do so they need intellectuals prepared to put their talents in the service of retrogression and against the people’s cause. Such a person has been the writer Salman Rushdie.

In the late 1980s, with even what had become pseudo-socialism collapsing in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, apart from the openly revolutionary and anti-imperialist states like Cuba and the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), it was becoming clear that one main force standing in the way of imperialist world domination was various Islamic countries. In these countries, which had suffered from colonial oppression and interference, there existed mass anti-imperialist forces and sentiment, even if their manifestation came under the banner of Islam. To prepare the ground for later military aggression, cultural aggression was first necessary. The publication of Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses in 1988 was part of this cultural aggression. Many commentators came to Rushdie’s defence on the grounds of "the right of free speech" when a religious fatwa was issued against him by Ayotollah Khomeini. Among them, it is true, there was some puzzlement that he should immediately be provided with 24-hour protection by the secret agencies of the state – agencies not hitherto known to rush to the defence of a progressive writer, as Rushdie claimed to be, but in fact more famous for the harassment, persecution and even, facts would suggest, the elimination of progressive people. But precious few commentators joined with the Islamic world in pointing out that the right of free speech did not extend to the insulting of whole peoples, the demonisation of whole religions, the provoking of conflicts and violence that could provide the pretext for the most terrible destruction. Tragically, as is now clear, these worst fears were to be borne out.

Now with Rushdie’s knighthood nearly twenty years on, the Blair/Brown government and the British state have felt emboldened to reward this servant of imperialism, and moreover in doing so to unleash yet another provocation against the Islamic world. Despite the debacle into which their policies have led them with their criminal wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite the wanton and terrible destruction they have visited on these countries, despite the vast and appalling loss of life they have caused, they stagger blindly on, threatening to drag millions more into their catastrophe. Salman Rushdie himself – despicable individual as he is – is not the issue. The issue is that once again Anglo-American imperialism is making its preparations for further wars of aggression against those who stand in their way. They must be stopped!

* Chris Coleman is National Spokesperson of RCPB(ML) and a writer whose 1976 play on Ireland United We Stand! suffered harassment by the Army in Belfast, and by Special Branch in England leading directly to the cutting off of state funding to the theatre company who produced it.